My Ex From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy, #1)

A dead minion tells no tales (Part 4)

I voiced the question that had been bothering me. "Why didn't they kill me? They had the chance."

"You're wanted alive."

I doubted it was so we could have tea. The big bosses probably wanted to kill me themselves. "But they attacked. If I was to be taken alive, why all of the pyrotechnics?"

"Alive doesn't preclude having a little fun first."

"Like how a lion toys with a gazelle before ripping its throat, fun?"

When Kai stared at me, incredulous, I shrugged. "I spend a lot of time with Hannah. She's very vocal about her interests. Wait. Is the school wondering what happened to me? Or have I disappeared from memory, too?"

"Hannah put it out that you have food poisoning and need a couple days to recover."

"It's going to take more than that."

He shook his head. "Doubtful. You get beat up easier than you did as Persephone but you heal faster than a normal human."

Only because I wasn't dead. "Thank you. For saving me from splattage."

"You were pretty impressive," he admitted. "Couldn't let that go to waste."

I allowed myself a small smirk. "Yeah. I kicked their asses."

"You did. Looks like you're up to speed on your power."

I was. Faulty still on the memories, though, which made talking to Kai a constant battle between doubt and desire.

"Now you just need to master defying gravity and you'll be good to go." He grinned at me and I felt myself falling into that smile.

Cue cheesy music as our eyes locked.

This wasn't "Sweet Valley High." Some piece of Kai's true form had emerged, because when I gazed into his eyes, I saw something not-quite-human staring back at me. It was ancient and feral.

Something inside me flickered in recognition. I tamped down hard on it. Evidently, I hadn't really thought through all the consequences of embracing that Greek heritage of mine. When it came to love lives, those gods made cable seem tame.

I, Sophie Bloom, the girl who had barely been kissed, was so out of her league. I laughed. Hard. Possibly with a touch of hysteria.

Kai stared at me, puzzled. "I've never heard you really laugh."

That seemed wrong. "Didn't I have a sense of humor?"

He thought about it. "I guess so. But you would never have let yourself go like that. Too concerned about appearance."

"I was vain?" Super weird idea.

"All goddesses are vain. Goes with their beauty."

"Score points for that."

"They're not mouthy though. Not like you. You always say what you think. Gods and goddesses tend to be more crafty. They'll strike out at you, but under the facade of seeming so pleasant. A smile to your face and a knife to your back."

"Majorly sucky way to live."

He shrugged. "It is what it is."

He stretched out his arms, fingers intertwined, palms outward. A tiny scar in the hollow between his thumb and forefinger caught my attention. I took his hand and ran my finger over it. "I remember that. How did you transfer it to your human form?"

"I'm not human. What you see is what you get." He tugged his hand away to frown at his scar.

I felt the loss. "No. You're waaaay taller."

"I've dialed my energy down to fit in. We never appear on earth in our true form."

Maybe, but I sensed a caginess about him. "You're holding out on me." He remained silent. "Oh, come on. I'll get better faster if you tell me."

"That's scientific."

"Fine. I'll nag you til you do." I curled my fingers into my palms, resisting the urge to touch him again.

His lips compressed in a thin line, like he was suppressing a smile. "Guess it can't do any harm for you to know. I couldn't cross Theo's wards in my true form. Even though I bore no active intention to harm, my life force was too strong. I had to dampen it."

"That's why Ms. Keeper couldn't come through all dragony."

"Yeah. She had to assume a less potent form."

"So, if you unveiled yourself to me?"

"I'd blow your little mind. I'm still myself. Not human. Just reigned in."

It made sense, especially given what I'd seen in his eyes. For the first time, I truly believed he was a god. Not just intellectually understood it, but knew it.

A question nagged at me. "How did Theo? Become human, I mean."

"Dark magic. I don't know why he'd ..." He trailed off.

I poked him as a prompt.

"Dark magic demands a price. A high one."

"So?"

"Well, two of you were made human, weren't you?"

"You mean the price of turning me human was Theo becoming human, too? Why would anyone demand that of him?"

Kai looked at me fondly. Like I was an idiot child to be tolerated. "Beings that practice that type of sorcery aren't nice. Could be spite. Because they could. Or because they wanted his god essence—his powers—and gave him a human shell to house what was left. You'd have to ask him."

No wonder Theo had been so dodgy to Hannah and me about taking on his true form. This was awful. He'd paid too high a price.

"You won't fail him," Kai said.

I hated that he could so easily read me. "How can you know that?"

"Don't really have a choice, do you? If you want to make it right for him, you have to save humanity. To do that, you have to stop the war on earth."

"And to do that, I have to help you take over."

He smoothed away a strand of hair that had fallen in my face. "Would it be so bad?"